Radiance, vigor, promise, beauty, health, loveliness, grace, comeliness, freshness—qualities associated with the prime of youth. And yet, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy indicates that these qualities should be just as evident in advancing years. How can this be?
Not so long ago a small lesion appeared over my left eye—a condition sometimes believed to be associated with aging. As I prayed about this, the thought became clear that God and His spiritual creation could never be subject to time or deterioration of any kind. Man, as God's own child, remains perfect and eternal, just as He is. There was no cause for such a blemish to be, let alone to grow in size (which it seemed to be doing). No plan, no law existed for such an occurrence. It could not dwell in the perfect divine consciousness that is God, and there was no other consciousness to create or harbor it.
God and man remain inseparable as perfect cause and perfect effect, as divine Mind and idea, as explained in Science and Health. I was reading this great book from cover to cover at the time, and it assured me in countless ways of the nothingness of affliction. I became less impressed with the physical appearance, and the growth was soon completely gone.
